Chapter 219.1: Way Out
“They’re all at the class monitor’s house today, having a gathering,” Dou Lu said as she sat on a stool awkwardly peeling an apple. None of the strips of apple peel falling onto the table were longer than two centimeters.
Ruan Silian leaned against the headboard, her smooth black hair draped over her shoulders. She held a book in her hands, reading quietly. Hearing Dou Lu’s words, she softly replied, “Really? A’Heng didn’t tell me.”
After a long silence, Dou Lu tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Why do you think he would still tell you everything?”
‘So here it comes,’ Ruan Silian thought. Her wrist slowly relaxed, the book slipping from her hand. Tears gathered in her eyes. “He told you?”
Dou Lu looked confused. “Told me what?”
Ruan Silian seemed a little lost. “Nothing.”
She had always been like this—either saying nothing at all, or never speaking plainly. Dou Lu was already used to it.
So she lowered her head and continued peeling the apple, avoiding eye contact with Ruan Silian. A few strands of bangs hung before her eyes, conveniently hiding the mist gathering in them.
“You’re not a good person. Did you think I didn’t know that? But you treated me well, treated all of us well, and that’s enough. No one can be perfect—I know that.” Before Dou Lu’s eyes appeared once again the ghastly pale moonlight from that night. Her heart trembled, but she continued.
“That night when you gave birth, you kept crying the whole evening. I carried them and ran outside, and halfway there, I realized it—you wanted me to kill them. Besides me, you didn’t believe anyone else would be willing to risk being cursed in order to kill them for you.” Dou Lu clenched her teeth as a tear rolled down. “A’Ruan, do you know? I was scared too. You understand me so well—you know I could never bear to hurt small animals. But you trusted me, trusted that I’d be willing to do this for you. You’re really… terrifying. Even this, you managed to calculate.”
“But what you probably didn’t know is that I let myself be manipulated by you willingly. After leaving the clinic, I understood what you wanted. I knew what you wanted me to do.”
“That night after I got home, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I thought about it—the Black Snake’s curse would only work on me because I know right from wrong. I know what I should do, and I did something wrong, something I shouldn’t have done.”
“The curse doesn’t come from the Black Snake. It comes from the version of myself that knows what is right.”
“A’Ruan, you’re a bad woman. And now I’m a bad woman too.” Dou Lu lowered her head and sniffed. “We’re still teammates, but from now on, we won’t be friends anymore.”
Dou Lu didn’t give Ruan Silian a chance to speak. She set down the small knife and the half-peeled apple, grabbed the backpack beside her, and stood up. “Bye-bye.” She left in a hurry, without even looking at Ruan Silian once.
Listening to the footsteps outside growing farther and farther away, Ruan Silian’s back stiffened. Her cheeks burned, as though her skin had been ripped off alive, scorching with pain.
But the pain on her face was nothing compared to even a thousandth of the ache in her heart. Holding back her tears, she looked toward the empty corner of the wall. The half-peeled apple had already oxidized and turned brown.
After a long while, Ruan Silian suddenly flung the book in her hand hard at the apple. The apple fell to the floor, rolling beneath the stool and getting covered in dust.
—
Lin Mengzhi bent down and picked up the apple Xue Shen had tossed at his feet. He had handed it to Xue Shen, only for the other man to throw it right back.
“Damn it, if you don’t want to eat it, then don’t!”
At present, these apples were still wild-grown. The place Ao She had found suitable for cultivating apples was three to four hundred kilometers away from Suyou City, and for now there was no reason to waste manpower and resources on planting apples. That made these wild, non-mass-produced apples especially precious.
Lin Mengzhi felt that Xue Shen was seriously being an ungrateful asshole. Ever since he walked through the door today, the guy had been wearing a gloomy expression the whole time—and specifically directing it at him, which was incredibly irritating.
The dining table had been cleared off and covered with a lavish spread of food. Plates of poached shrimp with tender meat were piled into little mountains. Chopped eel had been grilled until rich fat sizzled audibly as it was served. The venison had been prepared in four or five different ways, with special consideration for Wu Heng’s tastes, and there was even half a bowl of raw venison salad mixed fresh.
To cut through the richness of the meal, there was also plenty of vegetables and fruit.
At the very end, Shen Ping’an even made Wu Heng a glass of tomato juice by hand. No one else got one, causing Xie Chongyi to click his tongue twice in mock jealousy.
After dinner, empty liquor bottles were scattered all over the living room floor. Some had been provided by Wu Heng, while others had been bought outside. Aside from a few exceptions, everyone was thoroughly drunk. Lin Mengzhi even threw up on X’s wings, earning himself several hard stomps on the face from the furious bird.
Half-asleep, Xue Qi gathered X into his arms. “Where’s Liu Ning?”
“She left a while ago,” Yang Ao replied. “Said there was something going on in the community.”
“And she just left Lin Mengzhi here by himself?”
“It’s late. We all have work tomorrow too, so let’s call it a night.” Xue Shen was the first to stand. Walking over to Lin Mengzhi, he scooped him up in one motion. “Xiao Qi can head home on his own. I’ll take Lin Mengzhi back first.”
“No problem!” After all, Xue Qi wasn’t that drunk yet.
Shen Ping’an and Yang Ao were the last to leave, because the two homeowners—plus one dog and one bird—had all collapsed on the sofa pretending to be dead, completely ignoring the mess covering the floor. They looked very much like they believed some magical snail-maiden housekeeper would appear and clean everything up if they simply waited long enough. In the end, the two of them could only resign themselves to tidying the house. By the time they left, they had even taken all the garbage out with them.
The moment the two left, X lifted its head. Carefully, it hopped down to the floor and jumped behind the floor-to-ceiling window—the same window its dad had smashed a few days ago, which Shen Ping’an had later arranged to replace.
“They gone?” Wu Heng’s eyes shifted slightly.
“They’re gone!” X answered loudly.
Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi sat up at the same time.
“Bath, then sleep.”
Steam filled the bathroom. Wu Heng’s bangs had been pushed completely back, rivulets of water sliding down from his smooth forehead. Xie Chongyi pressed him against the bathroom wall, one hand gripping the hair at the back of his head as he kissed him deeply, almost fiercely.
Wu Heng had a terrible alcohol tolerance and hadn’t even drunk any alcohol, yet he already felt close to intoxicated. But Xie Chongyi had drunk quite a lot. Even the lingering scent of alcohol between his lips and teeth was enough to leave the “plant” in his arms dizzy and lightheaded.
Wu Heng supported himself on Xie Chongyi’s arm. When he was pressed back, his pale, beautiful spine tensed sharply, and his abdomen spasmed involuntarily. Mixed with his uneven breathing was Xie Chongyi’s cruel kiss, sealing his lips shut without mercy.
Hot water filled the bathroom, intensifying the faintly sweet yet bitter plant-like scent until it became almost overwhelming. Even Wu Heng himself was starting to feel like he couldn’t endure it anymore.
He bit down on Xie Chongyi’s shoulder, treating every moment now as if it were the last.
—
Out on the street, Shen Ping’an delivered the bagged trash to the waste station. The station was now managed by a few strength-type ability users, but they were off work at this hour. To save energy, there wasn’t a single light nearby. The moonlight was faint, like fireflies, falling over the shifting mound of garbage.
The young man put on gloves. Vines slipped from his palm, and the tip of his long blade scraped lightly across the ground as he slowly approached.
Crack.
Crack.
There was a chewing sound—like something thick and hard, like bone, being bitten through.
It wasn’t trash.
When Shen Ping’an was only two or three meters away from the pile, he smelled blood.
“Come out!” he called in a low voice.
A shadow rippled beneath his feet. Looking up from below, he first saw a pair of insect wings flickering with a cold blue light. Then came twisted, steel-hard insect legs, a barrel-like abdomen, and a complex insect head, with a slightly raised tail pointed forward.
It trembled with excitement, wings vibrating. Blood hung from its mouthparts, dripping steadily downward. Its hemispherical compound eyes stared directly at the “meal” that had delivered itself to its door.
Prepared for danger at all times, Shen Ping’an never allowed himself carelessness or hesitation. The moment it lunged at him, he twisted his wrist and turned his body.
His long blade pierced straight into the insect’s mouthparts. With a sharp twist, the still-active insect brain fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Warm-cool bodily fluid splashed across the young man’s back, and a foul stench instantly overwhelmed the smell of blood.
Shen Ping’an turned and crouched. His long blade shortened in his grip. Without even a pause, he drove it into the insect’s hollow-looking chest cavity with a squelch. After probing for several seconds, he stood and walked to the side, repeating the same action on the insect brain.
Finding nothing, he finally frowned slightly.
“There’s no energy core. That means it isn’t a mutated organism.”
“In all natural mutated creatures affected by energy, once they evolve aggression and individual awareness, an energy core forms inside their bodies.”
“If there isn’t one, then it must be something that only appeared in the last month or two—a carrier of infection.”
Shen Ping’an couldn’t understand it. Why would infected beings that only existed outside the city appear inside Suyou City?
While he was deep in thought, a boy’s figure appeared in the distance, running toward him while shouting “bro!”
At the end of the street, Shen Ruyi hunched his neck and ran over while looking around, clearly dissatisfied. He stopped in front of Shen Ping’an and complained as always. “Why didn’t you bring me to the gathering today? Are you all excluding me?”
Shen Ping’an wiped his blade with his sleeve. “When were you ever included in the first place?”
Shen Ruyi curled his lips in disdain. “Who cares.”
After he said that, no one responded. Shen Ping’an wasn’t the type to bicker with him, and after sheathing his blade, he walked toward where the car was parked.
Shen Ruyi gritted his teeth and followed. “Then can’t you at least say something good for me?”
Shen Ping’an: “Help you get closer to Wu Heng?”
“What?!” Shen Ruyi widened his eyes. “I don’t like him! I just think he’s good-looking. Besides, he killed my mom—why would I try to get close to him? Am I insane?”
Seeing Shen Ping’an get into the car, he quickly opened the passenger door and climbed in.
“I just want to hang out with Wu Zhi, but she ignores me.”
Shen Ping’an’s hand paused on the steering wheel, his expression complicated. To be honest, even he wasn’t sure which was more likely to get someone killed—getting close to Wu Heng, or getting close to Wu Zhi.
Shen Ruyi was around Wu Zhi’s age, about fourteen or fifteen. Shen Ping’an guessed he was simply starved of peers to play with and had fixated on her as a result. But Wu Zhi… was not a kind person.
He was about to suggest that if Shen Ruyi wanted friends, he could wait a few days for the people from Kuhuang to settle in and then look there—over twenty thousand people, surely there would be someone his age.
But before he could speak, a black shadow suddenly shot in from the passenger side.
With a bang, it slammed into the car door. The metal caved in instantly, and the vehicle was almost knocked onto its side.
Shen Ruyi’s waist was slammed so hard it felt like it was about to break. His face twisted in pain as he grabbed onto the seat. Vines shot out from the ground, attaching themselves to the surface of the tires, pulling the jeep back down onto all four wheels. In the same motion, he turned around and stabbed the insect that was about to launch another attack into a shredded mess.
He was gasping heavily, his face pale with shock. When he turned his head, he saw his older brother looking at him with obvious displeasure.
“What?” Shen Ruyi asked.
“Who told you to copy me?” Shen Ping’an asked coldly.
“Mind your own business. I can copy whoever I want.” Shen Ruyi crossed his arms and snorted a few times. Then his tone suddenly shifted—soft, gloomy, and chilling. “Shen Ping’an.”
The person being called tensed his fingers. A barely visible crack appeared on his flawless face. But the laughter that followed quickly pulled him back into calm. He released the steering wheel, and in the next second, he slapped Shen Ruyi without warning.
“You can imitate whoever you want. But Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi are not your toys. If you offend them, I can’t protect you.”
Shen Ruyi clutched his face. He didn’t even feel the pain—only humiliation. He jumped up, hitting his head against the car roof, then immediately grabbed his head with the other hand.
“Aren’t we brothers? What do you mean ‘can’t protect you’? Do you think you’re some male lead in a scheming novel or something? Don’t think I can’t tell—you like him, huh. Hmph. I’m telling Xie Chongyi.”
His voice wasn’t sharp, just the pre-voice-cracking, rasping tone of a teenager, but when he shouted, it was especially piercing.
Shen Ping’an’s fingers slipped off the steering wheel. He turned his head and stared at Shen Ruyi in silence for a long time.
“You don’t know, do you? I’ve already died once. And you also know—I’m no longer truly human. My loyalty has never had anything to do with love.”
Shen Ruyi had never seen such a wounded expression on the young man’s face before. His lips moved, like he wanted to apologize, but no words came out.
“Get out of the car,” Shen Ping’an said.
Shen Ruyi was forced out of the car. He could only watch as the jeep drove farther and farther away, with absolutely no sign of turning back. Furious, he shouted in place and kicked over a trash can.
“I’ll make all of you pay!” he yelled. He clenched his fists, then ran over and propped the trash can back up again. “Ah!!!”
After venting for a while, he finally noticed several small red lights nearby that hadn’t moved at all.
Huff—huff—
“What are you?” he took a step back.
The owners of the “red lights” followed his movement forward.
Dense black-armored insects poured out of the alley, gliding close to the ground.
“Brother!!!” Shen Ruyi panicked and turned to run.
They chased after him—extremely fast.
Shen Ruyi wasn’t skilled with his vines. Out of every three swings, he would trip himself twice.
He rolled on the ground to dodge bites and trampling, but he still got scraped in multiple places, blood slowly seeping out.
His eyes darted over the swarm in panic. The moment he flipped back up, his hands rapidly transformed into insect-like sickles, his head replaced by a massive insect brain. Tilting his head, he directly tore apart the rushing insect with a single bite.
Crack. Crack.
The boy chewed slowly.
“Spit, spit, spit—disgusting.”
